'Mary, Beatrice, Lucia—Grant Us Your Light'

Live, Love, Cupcakes

by Cara Chamberlain

The city embellishes
A chase of silver
Or realistically a pus of clouds

Where the moon charades
As blemish or scar
Above the grocery of insomniacs

The dark respiration working
Nighthawks culling tides and waves
Of a winged blight over the big box store

Secret folds mining clamping
Mushrooms pulsing up inside the lawns
White forests releasing spores

Fanged worms in matted compost
Clever slime molds retreating
Dead-man's fingers shriveling

With dawn a blessed time
Soon perhaps grown flat
Despite the promised sugars

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Credit Linds Sanders / Word Poetry

Cara Chamberlain's poems have been published in such journals as Boston Review, Tar River Poetry, Virginia Quarterly Review, Passages North, and The Southern Review, and in Hidden Things, a collection of poetry. "Mary, Beatrice, Lucia—Grant Us Your Light" was published in her 2015 collection The Divine Botany. Cara Chamberlain lives in Billings, Montana.

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Chérie Newman is a former arts and humanities producer and on-air host for Montana Public Radio, and a freelance writer. She founded and previously hosted a weekly literary program, The Write Question, which continues to air on several public radio stations; it is also available online at PRX.org and MTPR.org.